Content with Content

I was reading through the comments on my blog tonight (thank you to those who have commented!) and one thing that my friend Leigh said on my post “Friend or Foe?” really stuck out to me. In response to my post on movies promoting demonic activity, she said, “I've always disliked horror movies, but I don't often sit back and analyze why I don't like them.”

Leigh hit it right on the nose.

Why do we watch what we watch? Or read the books we read, or pick up the magazine covers that we see in the store or in the dentist’s office? Or choose that particular radio station to listen to?

One reason is because we want to. Aside from personal preferences, we do the things we do because we have friends who tell us that something is good, so we’re curious to see what is so good about it. Another reason is because we see commercials, ads and promotions everywhere; advertisements are everywhere you look. You can’t drive to work or listen to music on Spotify without being bombarded with some form of advertisement.

Because we do what we want to, we are oftentimes content with content. What do I mean by that?

We should be analyzing the content. We shouldn’t just watch any movie or read any book because someone told us it is good. When we go in to watch that film or read that first page, we need to go into that media with the sole purpose of analyzing what content they could be promoting.

Ideas and beliefs are thrown into anything, and it doesn’t have to be sealed in black and white for us to recognize it. And you know what? Most of the time, it isn’t!

People are going to stick their beliefs deep into their works so it isn’t strictly obvious that that is what they promote. Therefore we should not be satisfied with what we let ourselves consume. We need to critique and analyze our media choices by biblical standards in order to prove what is good and acceptable content.

I know it could get very heavy trying to find issues and problems where there aren’t any. But that doesn’t give us the excuse not to look. There are beliefs and advertisements for those beliefs everywhere in our media. Chances are we don’t agree with many of those beliefs.

But to carry on, oblivious of their existence? That’s a dangerous place to be.

 

P.S. If you'd like to check it out, here's the link to my friend Leigh's blog on learning the viewpoints to the "opposite side". It's a great blog and I'd encourage you to check it out! ;)http://leighkosin.blogspot.com/